[Cloud Solutions Spotlight]As Chinese enterprises expand overseas, this marks the ‘year of establishing a foothold’;why has AI-native ERP become a must-have?

In 2016, Oracle completed its acquisition of NetSuite for US$9.3 billion—the world’s largest cloud software merger and acquisition at the time—which marks its tenth anniversary in 2026. Over the past decade, NetSuite’s customer base has grown from approximately 30,000 to over 43,000, spanning 219 countries and regions, providing concrete evidence of the long-term value of ‘cloud-native ERP’. Meanwhile, in 2026, Chinese enterprises expanding overseas have shifted from an ‘export-oriented’ approach to ‘taking root locally’, establishing factories and warehouses in Vietnam, Mexico and the Middle East to form a hybrid system combining ‘Chinese standards’ with ‘local supply chains’. The deeper a business’s roots, the more complex its management becomes: multiple currencies, accounting standards, tax regimes and time zones. A single misstep could see compliance risks erode the benefits of global expansion. Ultimately, all of this boils down to one question: what system should underpin a company’s global operations?

01 ERP is evolving from a ‘recording system’ to an ‘intelligent system’

In the past, the core function of ERP was recording—faithfully logging orders, stock and financial data. However, today’s competitive environment demands that systems not only record, but also understand, make recommendations and even execute tasks automatically. In its 2026.1 and 2026.2 releases, Oracle NetSuite has embedded AI directly into the ERP core:

• NetSuite Next introduces ‘Ask Oracle’, a natural language assistant that allows finance staff to retrieve figures and generate reports through conversation;

• AI Canvas enables teams to simulate the impact of changes in variables such as pricing and sales volumes on overall financial and operational metrics on a single canvas; ‘Autonomous Close’ automates end-of-month reconciliation—which used to take days—using an AI agent, with human staff required only to review and sign off;

• The NetSuite AI Connector Service, based on the open MCP protocol, enables secure integration with a company’s proprietary AI tools.

In a nutshell: ERP is evolving from a ‘System of Record’ to a ‘System of Intelligence’; whoever adopts it first will reap the efficiency dividends of global operations.

02 Establishing a Firm Foothold Overseas: Why Is AI-Native ERP Indispensable?

The pain points faced by companies expanding overseas are almost identical: overseas subsidiaries operating in silos, relying on Excel to consolidate financial statements at month-end; tax systems and filing regulations that change year on year across different countries; and new subsidiaries taking months to go live with their systems. These issues are virtually unsolvable under a traditional monolithic architecture—changing the tax rules for a single country could potentially affect the entire finance module.

Cloud-native and AI-native ERP systems, however, are designed precisely to address these challenges: with support for multiple languages, currencies and accounting standards, alongside globally unified master data and continuously updated cloud capabilities, they make it possible for new subsidiaries to be ‘ready to use’ from the moment they are set up. Industry research also corroborates this trend: systems with global integration capabilities can significantly reduce the costs of cross-regional collaboration; ERP systems that natively support localisation can mitigate the majority of cross-border compliance risks. This is precisely the underlying reason why the penetration rate of cloud-native ERP is set to exceed 51 per cent by 2026.

03 Hitpoint Cloud’s Track Record: Over 300 Case Studies from 2009 to the Present

Beyond trends, practical results speak louder. As one of China’s earliest consultancy firms specialising in Oracle NetSuite, Hitpoint Cloud (Shanghai Wangshan Information Technology Co., Ltd.) was established in 2005 and has been deeply involved with Oracle NetSuite since 2009. The decade since NetSuite’s acquisition by Oracle has coincided with Hitpoint Cloud’s most intensive period of supporting Chinese enterprises in their digital transformation – to date, the firm has served over 300 clients across more than 10 specialised sectors, including cross-border e-commerce, retail D2C, photovoltaic renewable energy, biopharmaceuticals and integrated industry-trade operations.

Key milestones include:

• 2009: Delivery of China’s first NetSuite project – Yonghe King;

• In 2017, we delivered the world’s largest NetSuite project – Huawei’s global system for reconciling accounts with physical inventory across its retail outlets;

• We developed a global PV ERP system for Xiehang New Energy, spanning its Chinese headquarters and Turkish factory; and built a global supply chain system for H&H Group to support global operations across six brands, more than ten countries and sales in the tens of billions;

• In the retail and catering sectors, brands such as Domino’s China and Blue Bottle Coffee have also utilised Oracle NetSuite to achieve rapid store expansion, the integration of business and financial operations, and precise store-level accounting.

The common thread running through these projects is that enterprises have entrusted both ‘global governance’ and ‘local compliance’ to a partner that understands both Oracle NetSuite and the Chinese business landscape.

04 AI Implementation: It’s Not About the Models, but the ‘Data Foundation + Implementation Experience’

No matter how impressive AI capabilities may be, they must be built upon clean data and clear processes – and this is precisely where the value of an implementation partner lies. Hitpoint Cloud’s confidence stems from three pillars:

• Authoritative certification: Recognised as an Oracle NetSuite Global Five-Star Partner for several consecutive years, named Oracle NetSuite’s Best Partner in North Asia for 2025, and serving as Oracle NetSuite’s sole authorised training centre in China;

• Product capabilities: Several in-house developed SuiteApps, including Hitpoint China Finance SuiteApp and Hitpoint China Tax SuiteApp, have been officially recommended, helping over a thousand clients with localised finance and tax requirements to achieve automatic integration with Chinese financial statements, invoices and the Golden Tax System;

• Service Assurance: From a two-hour response time for critical issues to service capabilities covering nearly 30 countries and regions worldwide—tailored to local languages, time zones and cultures—ensuring that enterprises have support no matter which market they operate in.

Furthermore, Hitpoint Cloud boasts an implementation and development team of over 100 people, forming a comprehensive collaborative system spanning marketing, pre-sales, implementation, development and post-sales operations, providing long-term assurance for continuous upgrades in the AI era.

In Conclusion:

Choosing a platform means choosing your competitive edge for the next five years

‘Go global or go bust’ has become a reality; ‘maintaining control after going global’ determines how far a business can go. Rather than agonising over whether to adopt AI, it is better to first clarify three key questions: Does the data support the implementation of AI? Do the processes stand up to global compliance scrutiny? Does the partner have sufficient cross-border and cross-industry implementation experience?

Hitpoint Cloud is committed to working with businesses to find the answers to these three questions. Upholding the values of ‘professionalism, focus, empowerment, innovation and inclusivity’, Hitpoint Cloud is dedicated to becoming a long-term partner in cloud application solutions that clients can trust.